When it Rains It Pours

My husband and I carpool to work. When we passed the gas station we realized that it had gone up thirty cents a gallon overnight. When we started home today it had gone up another ten cents. Now you know why we carpool. It gets old somedays sitting at work waiting on him to pick me up after everyone has gone, but it sure saves a lot on gas. Eventually we made it to work, and within the first hour, I could tell there was a bad luck cloud over us today. One of our health aides made an error in judgement at a patient's house, and because she had done this once before, was fired. Sharing an office with my boss, I was privy to the conversation she had with corporate over whether or not she could fire her. She hung up the phone and turned to me and said, "She's gone!" Then she had ME call her and tell her to come in to the office. She seemed very happy to get to fire her. I wasn't feeling as chipper about it. For one thing, I knew the girl who was going to be fired, having worked with her for several years at three different agencies. I like her. I do admit though, she screwed up royally, and if I was in my boss's position, I would have to terminate her, too. I called her and gave her the message. Her first question was, "Am I going to be fired?" I hesitated and said, "I don't know." Which was a lie. I did know. However my boss was standing there looking at me make the call, and I was afraid to spill the beans in front of her. Later, when the girl came in to the office, I got up and went out. My boss came back looking for me to come in to "witness" her firing. I asked the office mgr if she would go, and she agreed without any hesitation. Maybe I should have gone. I've done it so many times before. Heck, when I had my own business, I had to fire a guy once. (He took it very well, thank goodness.) But I couldn't look at my friend knowing she was fired, and I had lied to her about it. I'm going to miss her being there. It makes me realize how little security any of us have. Screwing up could happen to any of us any day, since no one is perfect. All afternoon, the other people in the office teased me about leaving when it all started. They said, "Hey we didn't know you could run that fast. Show us how you did that again." It got a big laugh. I told them I had been called the angel of death enough at my old job. As the admin assistant, any time my boss called a worker into his office and then called for me, and I responded by walking in and closing the door, they knew the ax was going to drop. I didn't want to be the angel of death today. Now I'm debating calling my friend to tell her I'm sorry. I think she's probably very angry, so I may give her a few days to cool off and then call. Overall, it was a pretty shitty day.